Stoudemire Gets Break From Judge In Payback Case

Amare Stoudemire might owe an agent more than $200,000, but he doesn't have to repay it.

At least, not yet.

Judge David S. Doty of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota set aside a default judgment against Stoudemire, leaving in doubt whether Minneapolis agent John Wolf will get back the money he loaned the player during his senior season at Cypress Creek High School.

In February, Doty ordered Stoudemire to repay Wolf $196,069.28 in cash advances the agent gave him from 2001-03. Wolf and Big League Sports Services Inc. filed a list of payments totaling $206,069.28.

The ruling came in large part because Stoudemire, who plays for the Phoenix Suns, did not respond to the civil suit until after Doty's decision -- as the Suns started taking money out of his paycheck and putting it in escrow.

Stoudemire acknowledged in court documents that he and others around him, including a coach in the Amateur Athletic Union, were paid by Wolf and Big League Sports Services before, during and after his senior basketball season at Cypress Creek. Such payments would have made him ineligible to play high school ball. The AAU coach was not identified.

But Stoudemire, who earned $1.9 million during his second season with the Suns, said he did not answer Wolf's lawsuit because of an arbitration clause in the National Basketball Players Association agreement. He used a January letter from the NBPA to Wolf outlining the arbitration clause to bolster his claim.

Doty found it a reasonable explanation. Stoudemire's inaction was "not so severe that he should be denied an opportunity to defend the action on its merits."

Wolf and Stoudemire parted ways in February 2003, about a month after the agent made the last of 38 payments -- $11,543. All of the payments were considered by Wolf to be loans against Stoudemire's first NBA signing bonus.

In vacating his earlier order, Doty did minimize the damage for Wolf, ruling that Stoudemire must pay some of Wolf's legal fees tied to the player's initial ignoring of the case.

The issue of whether the dispute will be sent to arbitration or can be settled in federal court still must be determined.